Quotes of the day

posted at 8:01 pm on February 10, 2013 by Allahpundit

“This is a bad idea whose time has come,” former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a powerhouse fundraiser for Crossroads, said of the new organization, according to an email Monday to donors from Steven Law, head of the Crossroads groups and Conservative Victory Project.

Law outlined plans to essentially perform oppo research [on conservatives] and grade potential candidates on a variety of factors that might affect their ability to win a general election contest, including using fundraising reports “like earnings calls” to evaluate “the competitiveness of candidates.” And he signaled that Crossroads would mobilize other big-money groups in its network to help avert damaging primaries…

But Rove’s involvement in primaries could inflame opponents, predicted Matt Hoskins, executive director of the Senate Conservatives Fund PAC. “Their activities are going to actually have the opposite effect of what they’re trying to do,” he said. “It could actually make it easier for conservative candidates to win primaries.”…

“We discourage our people from supporting third-party candidates by saying ‘that’s a big mistake. We shouldn’t do that’,” [Tea Party Express founder Sal Russo] said. “But if the position [Rove’s allies] take is rule or ruin — well, two can play that game. And if we get pushed, we’re not going to be able to keep the lid on that.”

***

One high-profile Republican strategist, who refused to be named in order to avoid inflaming the very segments of the party he wants to silence, said there is a deliberate effort by party leaders to “marginalize the cranks, haters and bigots — there’s a lot of underbrush that has to be cleaned out.”…

So a political colonoscopy is going on before our eyes. Republican after Republican told us the party dodged a bullet with Mitt Romney’s loss: If he had squeaked in, this vital reboot would have been delayed four or eight years…

Stone said it’s wrong to alienate the conservative base. “These are the storm troops of the Republican Party,” he said, adding that tea party folks ring doorbells and hang signs for candidates. “Don’t offend them”

Stone said Republicans can find electable candidates who also appeal to tea party principles. But a group that divides a minority party, he added, “that’s like pre-meditated suicide. I’m not for a suicide PAC.”

***

Matt Kibbe of FreedomWorks openly scoffed at the notion that Rove’s network would be able to pick winners and losers. “The guys who fund groups like Rove’s want to re-establish that they’re in charge, but they just don’t understand the inevitable decentralization and democratization of politics,” said Kibbe. Club for Growth president Chris Chocola seconded that motion: “When you think about a Republican primary, and you think about a principled conservative versus a moderate Republican – well, our model wins more often.”

Rove’s apparent apathy toward the Tea Party has obviously generated antipathy for his views. As Mark Levin has pointed out, Rove recently bragged about spending some $30 million on Senate Tea Party candidates and $25 million on Tea Party House candidates — but American Crossroads reportedly spent some $400 million in the 2012 election cycle, meaning that only about $1 out of every $8 was spent on Tea Party candidates.

Paul pushed back Sunday on the notion that Rubio, or any other Republican, has been anointed as the “face” of the Republican Party, making the case that Republican lawmakers sometimes have different priorities.

“I don’t think anybody gets to choose who the face is, or say you or someone else is the face. I think we do the best to promote what we believe in,” Paul said, pointing to his own vocal opposition to sending U.S. foreign aid money to certain countries like Egypt and Pakistan.

Rove believes that candidates like O’Donnell gave away likely seats in Nevada, Colorado, Indiana, and Missouri during the last two election cycles. The GOP might control the Senate today if sharper candidates had prevailed.

This line of thinking outrages movement conservatives and Tea Party activists. They chalk up the defeats to the liberal media, which lampooned true conservatives by fixating on their minor missteps. By pledging to support more electable candidates, Rove is buying in to the frame that the media puts around true conservatives.

This theory may be reasonable or it may be poppycock. Either way, Rove’s detractors should thank him for bringing the debate into the open. Rove’s new effort is good for the Tea Party in the way that doubters are good for religions. No faith worthy of its Sunday parishioners crumbles under a challenge. Leaving aside whether Rove is really challenging the core of Tea Party beliefs, his efforts force those who hold a different view into being clearer about what they believe. Only if they go through that process can they make their case to Republicans who aren’t already true believers. Plus, if they can’t beat Karl Rove at the internal game, they’re not going to be able to beat the Democrats.

***

Back then, and even now, 41 years later, Rove was not a radical or what they called a “movement” conservative. He was a geeky outsider who longed for the power and money and connections that he thought would be available to him in politics in general and as a Nixon acolyte in particular. Nixon hated the country clubbers, but for social not philosophical reasons, and he drew to his side outsider operatives such as Rove with a lust for power…

Tea Partiers rightly ask what Rove and his rich-as-Croesus American Crossroads super PAC have gotten for conservatives or even the GOP. Rove is a master tactician, but not necessarily a great judge of political horseflesh. His taste tends to run to rich guys who can pay him a lot — which worked out well only in the case of W., and then only by skin of Justice Antonin Scalia’s (“get over it”) teeth…

Deep-dyed conservatives have a right to ask the Roves of the world what the establishment GOPers have done to erase the debt, limit the reach of the federal government or enhance a libertarian view of the world. The answer, to the Rand Pauls of the world, is simple: nothing…

He’s done.

***

Hear this: extremist ideology is one crucial element of being a bad candidate. There is no good way to phrase the idea that rape victims should be compelled to bear their rapist’s child. Ditto for the idea that those people who can’t find work in the throes of the worst jobs crisis since the 1930s are moochers and takers.

But there is an idea that can be phrased, and it is this:

It’s long past time to create within the Republican party an organized force to fund and support moderate-minded candidates. The Tea Party types do not hesitate to champion their views. Why would it be wrong for moderate Republicans to do likewise? Karl Rove won’t lead that effort. Somebody should. Who?

***

Why are people giving money to Karl Rove when he just wasted $400M without any victories? Use your head.

There’s been a lot of calls for Republicans to change. And we have seen that from everybody to Paul Ryan to Marco Rubio. Now we’re beginning to see the donor class really begin to change. There is some question, are they trying to change just the candidates, so they don’t get Todd Akin, or they trying to actually change some of the substance?

And, so far , it seems to be just the candidates. One of the interesting things — and I can’t say I know the answer to this — is, how much will the Tea Party fight back? There has been some effort that they are saying, oh, the establishment is taking over.

But my own sense of things so far is that there is not the will to fight among the Tea Party and that a lot of people in the Tea Party are, frankly — they’re not — they are also Republicans. And a lot of — say, Rush Limbaugh, for example, who is not Tea Party, he’s more an establishment Republican who wants the Republican Party to win.

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An apparent tornado passed through the heart of Hattiesburg on Sunday as part of a wave of severe storms that caused injuries and significant damage.

Forrest County Fire Coordinator Chip Brown said there is major damage in Hattiesburg and to the northeast in Petal, including on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi. He couldn’t confirm injuries.
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VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI has announced that he will resign Feb. 28, the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years. The decision sets the stage for a conclave to elect a new pope before the end of March.

The 85-year-old pope announced his decision in Latin during a meeting of Vatican cardinals Monday morning.

He said that because of his advanced age and diminishing strength, he didn’t feel he could carry on the job.
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The Vatican Radio website has just posted Pope Benedict’s resignation statement. Here it is:

Full text of Pope’s declaration

Dear Brothers,
I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering.

However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.

Dear Brothers, I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry and I ask pardon for all my defects. And now, let us entrust the Holy Church to the care of Our Supreme Pastor, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and implore his holy Mother Mary, so that she may assist the Cardinal Fathers with her maternal solicitude, in electing a new Supreme Pontiff. With regard to myself, I wish to also devotedly serve the Holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer.

I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.

Dear Brothers, I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry and I ask pardon for all my defects. And now, let us entrust the Holy Church to the care of Our Supreme Pastor, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and implore his holy Mother Mary, so that she may assist the Cardinal Fathers with her maternal solicitude, in electing a new Supreme Pontiff. With regard to myself, I wish to also devotedly serve the Holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer.

What cry babies some people are. They have no problem going after people in primaries, they have no problem telling everyone else what is and is not acceptable for a conservative to think, do and feel…they like to dish it out but when someone like Rove comes along and says he wants to support people they think they might not always like…well then comes the teeth gnashing and the wailing and the accusations of Rinoism. Good Lord, no wonder the Democrats win. Sheesh people grow the hell up.

What cry babies some people are. They have no problem going after people in primaries, they have no problem telling everyone else what is and is not acceptable for a conservative to think, do and feel…they like to dish it out but when someone like Rove comes along and says he wants to support people they think they might not always like…well then comes the teeth gnashing and the wailing and the accusations of Rinoism. Good Lord, no wonder the Democrats win. Sheesh people grow the hell up.
Terrye on February 11, 2013 at 6:46 AM

I agree. But I am hopeful about 2014 and 2016.

People like Mark Levin, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin foster this divisive conservative in-fighting. Their followers eat it up, get all riled up and then parrot whatever they are told. These people like Beck and Levin often do way more harm than good.

Excuse me while I go get some Listerine. I just agreed with Trump. Gah! Rove is beatable. Look at all the examples from the last national election. Just think of a R senate if the est had gotten behind all of the R candidates instead of trying to be pure for the mods. They just want politicians they can easily control once they get into office. Remember Lott’s words. That is how they think.

WAIT! You said you were at Reactor #1 at San Onofre – THAT is the one that is a historical artifact for the development of Fuel in the industry, with a Spherical Containment, and the Feedwater Pumps are the Safety Injection Pumps. The 3410 MWt CE plants are units 2 and 3! Right?

williamg on February 11, 2013 at 12:29 AM

Reactor 1 (SONGS-1) was rated at 1347 MWt. It was shut down in 92, yes 2 & 3 were The 3410 MWt, and… they’re both shut down now as well.

SONGS-1 is mostly gone now, disassembled down to the reactor chamber itself and the ocean water exchange system.

SWalker on February 11, 2013 at 12:45 AM

THAT’s what I thought! San Onofre #1 was an industry Milestone – like Vallecitos, where 10 CCFR 50.59 was invented. I still remember seeing the spherical containment there. Classic!

sooooo … I guess the GOP Ayatollah plan for next time around is to do the exact same thing and hope for a better result?

LMFAO!!

HondaV65 on February 11, 2013 at 9:54 AM

Sounds about right. Let’s see if we can pick our own Candidate this time. For now, let’s concentrate on 2014. Since Rove, Law and their RINOPAC are attacking and smearing Rep. Steve King in Iowa,
let’s start pushing back there now.

He was a fierce opponent of Obamacare & I sent him emails in 2009.
He is a strong Conservative, so let’s support him.

A fair statement. Beck may border on being a tinfoil-hatter, but boy howdy can he rally a crowd when he really puts his mind to it!

MelonCollie on February 11, 2013 at 10:37 AM

I think Beck has done more good than not. Trying to agree with Rush, Levin or Beck on everything they say and do shouldn’t be the goal. There is one thing I know and the vast amount of information and network that Beck has built is astounding. How he puts together all he has is amazing to me. His latest is a 4th of July 3 day celebration in Utah!!

WOW! Now we have both parties believing that “We the People” are just too dumb to pick a candidate and so they’ll do it for us. Well anyone that gives EITHER party a dime is exactly that.

I will NOT support a party that believes they should pick my candidate and then tell me to go vote. Might as well have a dictatorship – well that’s what we do have now, isn’t it. And both parties seem just fine with it. It’s despicable to think we have to pay their salaries while they screw us.

I’m now considering seriously that Karl Rove is nothing but a Democrat/Leftist mole.

Rove obviously must be purged from the party, as his presence can only cause more massive Republican losses as both real Conservatives and RINOs watch his childish fits and realize that he cannot be trusted.